The presentation will explore the origins and meaning of austerity urbanism, locating this in the lineage of neoliberal or market-based forms of governance. The rise and repeated reconstruction of neoliberal forms of urbanism over the past three decades have in fact continuously drawn on notions of austerity as a defining feature of “free” market rule. Austerity was a governing principle during the “roll back” phase of neoliberalism (the inaugural period of social-state retrenchment and “cuts”), but it would also shaped the ensuing phase of “roll out” neoliberalism (as neoliberal policymakers became increasingly mired in the task of managing the contradictions of earlier waves of marketization, privatization, and commodification), during which time institutional reforms were authorized under conditions of permanent fiscal restraint and market-oriented selectivity. The Wall Street crash of 2008, far from marking the end of neoliberalism, as some speculated at the time, has ushered in a more revanchist but also “roiling” phase of neoliberal development: the age of systemic austerity.

Announcements for the lecture series by ISW here.
Monday, 9th July 2012, 18:00 hours